Messages

1

General / Re: [DOWNLOAD v0.1] Attract True Black - Application

« on: March 30, 2017, 09:28:46 PM »

Agreed, source code would be nice.  Thanks for sharing the app.

Suggestion to people using it - set AM to "fill screen" mode.   That mode has fewer transition issues. 

2

General / Re: Attract Mode window focus problem - but only with MAME?

« on: March 27, 2017, 02:11:25 PM »

I had the same problem.

What I found was that Mame64.exe was not actually exiting.   It's hanging when it tries to close its main window.    Pressing alt-tab seems to get it "unstuck" and it exits completely.   

AttractMode has some issue when the system wants to redraw the main window, but it's waiting for the emulator to exit.   This manifests as a white screen or a previous display in the Full Screen modes.   The author has made some changes in recent builds to try and address it but it doesn't seem fully fixed.   I strongly suspect this issue is related.

I worked around it by creating a small app that draws a full screen black pop up window, then runs Mame.     The black pop up prevents Attract Mode from trying to redraw itself, which allows Mame to exit without issue.   

Not sure why this just started happening for you out of nowhere though.   Perhaps a windows update or video driver update?     What kind of video card does your system have?   Mine is built in Intel video.

3

General / Re: multiple mame

« on: March 21, 2017, 03:11:00 PM »

If you edit a specific game (Esc+Down by default) you can customize the command line that gets run.  That's probably the easiest way to handle it.

Alternatively, the rom list actually is what contains the emulator profile that runs (open the rom list in a text editor, you'll see the third column is "mame", this refers to the mame emulator in your emulator list.

sfexa;Street Fighter EX;Mame;sfex;1996;Capcom / Arika;Fighter...
sfex2p;Street Fighter EX2 Plus;Mame;;1999;Capcom / Arika;Figh...
sf2ce;Street Fighter II': Champion Edition;Mame;;1992;Capcom;..

You could set up a second "mame" emulator (say altmame), and go through the rom list and change the ones you want from mame to altmame.   If you are really talking about modifying 50 games it might be faster/easier than specifying 50 custom command lines. 

 

4

General / Re: A quick question that I haven't seen answered anywhere on the forums yet!! Why??

« on: March 20, 2017, 06:03:06 PM »

Looking at the source code, it supports

1) Raspberry Pi MMAL
2) NVidia CuVid
3) Intel QuickSync

My system should support QuickSync, but according to this, you need to have your build environment set up properly with some Intel components to get this support in libavcodec.   I'm pretty sure mine is not set up properly to build it and I'm going to guess the official cross-platform build isn't either.

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HWAccelIntro

I suspect we aren't seeing a lot of attention on this since most folks running windows are running semi-modern CPUs that can handle decoding the typical emulation 640x480 videos without breaking a sweat.   It's a more critical piece for Raspberry Pi or linux users who might be re-purposing old hardware.

Don't know about the NVidia option.   I ran with a NVidia card in my cab for a hot second until I realized it offered no real improvement, not even with HLSL shaders running.

Might be interesting to try throwing in support for Direct3D11 and/or DXVA2 options to see if they show up, which would work more generically on a Windows machine.

5

General / Re: Allow for import of one of the "ROMlister" export formats for MAME

« on: March 18, 2017, 09:08:19 PM »

Just to throw this out there, since I first used Romlister, try LightSpeed instead. It's much more up to date and can directly output an AttractMode list.   It has a feature for consuming pre built recommended games (all killer no filler) that would have saved me so much time had I just started with Lightspeed instead. 

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/30530-lightspeed-ultra-fast-mame-importer-tool/

To answer original question I used Romlister to generate MameWah list and AM imported that no problem.  Something in my game list didn't work right with Hyperspin format output.

6

General / Re: Simplified Windows native compile w/ MSYS2

« on: March 17, 2017, 06:49:16 PM »

Thanks!!  I tried and failed with the included instructions too.   I was getting issues with SMFL not building correctly.

I ended up installing MAME Compiler, and then using the build environment from that (which is just another MSYS2 install).  For whatever reason SFML had no problem there.  So now I can build both MAME and Attract Mode from the same toolset which is nice.

There has to be a way to get it to include static libraries.  MAME does with the same build environment.

The DLL list is pretty long, but here they are if you want to copy them.  In my case I have the build tools on my standard mechanical HDD, so I wanted to copy the DLLs to the SSD.   Here was the minimum list I came up with:

Code: [Select]

avcodec-57.dll
avformat-57.dll
avutil-55.dll
libarchive-13.dll
libbluray-1.dll
libbz2-1.dll
libcelt0-2.dll
libexpat-1.dll
libffi-6.dll
libfreetype-6.dll
libgcc_s_seh-1.dll
libglib-2.0-0.dll
libgmp-10.dll
libgnutls-30.dll
libgraphite2.dll
libgsm.dll
libharfbuzz-0.dll
libhogweed-4.dll
libiconv-2.dll
libidn-11.dll
libintl-8.dll
libjpeg-8.dll
liblz4.dll
liblzma-5.dll
liblzo2-2.dll
libmodplug-1.dll
libmp3lame-0.dll
libnettle-6.dll
libogg-0.dll
libopenal-1.dll
libopencore-amrnb-0.dll
libopencore-amrwb-0.dll
libopenjp2-7.dll
libopenjp3d-7.dll
libopenjpip-7.dll
libopenjpwl-7.dll
libopenmj2-7.dll
libopus-0.dll
liborc-0.4-0.dll
libp11-kit-0.dll
libpcre-1.dll
libpng16-16.dll
librtmp-1.dll
libschroedinger-1.0-0.dll
libspeex-1.dll
libstdc++-6.dll
libtasn1-6.dll
libtheora-0.dll
libtheoradec-1.dll
libtheoraenc-1.dll
libunistring-2.dll
libvorbis-0.dll
libvorbisenc-2.dll
libvorbisfile-3.dll
libvpx-1.dll
libwavpack-1.dll
libwebp-6.dll
libwebpmux-2.dll
libwinpthread-1.dll
libx264-148.dll
libx265.dll
libx265_main10.dll
libxml2-2.dll
sfml-audio-2.dll
sfml-graphics-2.dll
sfml-network-2.dll
sfml-system-2.dll
sfml-window-2.dll
swresample-2.dll
swscale-4.dll
xvidcore.dll
zlib1.dll


7

General / Re: GLSL and onboard graphics

« on: March 17, 2017, 12:03:07 AM »

I use HLSL shaders on an Intel H8M board with i3 4340 with the built in video.   Works 100% perfect.  Vsync is on and never a stutter.    Even some of the newer stuff that I would expect to be slow on this system like Gauntlet Legends runs fine.    Extremely happy with the new pixel shader stuff.

If I enable oversampling (anti-aliasing) for vector graphics (which are not default), I need to turn the bloom filter off to keep it from stuttering, but that was the only concession I had to make, and it wasn't a hard one since I don't really like the bloom effect on that anyway.

The BGFX stuff is slower.  I didn't play much with it since I was happy with the HLSL effects.

8

General / Re: Launching Street Fighter V in Attract Mode help

« on: March 15, 2017, 01:51:25 PM »

It sounds like whatever you're running in AM loads the game as another process, then exits.

I don't have SFV so it's hard to be more specific, but it would be helpful if you shared the command line you're running.   Also if you acquired the game through Steam, there is a "minimum runtime" option that's supposed to be helpful for running Steam games.

9

General / Re: Attract mode not using the version of a game I want

« on: March 08, 2017, 08:40:29 PM »

You can hit Esc+Down by default to edit a single game.

[NAME] is the Rom Name that it will start, assuming you're referring to a MAME game.

10

General / Re: Attract mode not using the version of a game I want

« on: March 07, 2017, 05:02:28 PM »

Not sure how you created your game list, but you can edit the game list in a plain text editor.    Its a  I find that way faster for removing duplicates and doing minor tweaks. 

11

General / Re: HELP!! Attract Mode from External Drive

« on: March 05, 2017, 12:49:11 PM »

I have a 256gb SSD and comfortably fit roms and media up to Snes/Genesis/TG16 era (beyond that the digital joysticks on my cab would make most n64+ era games unplayable) , but not mame CHDs. 

If I weeded out only the roms / chds I really wanted  (playable, US games, no clones) then it would probably all fit in 256, but 128 would be super tight.

All this said AM doesn't care where the roms are or if they're even there once you've built the list.

12

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: March 05, 2017, 12:40:41 PM »

Yep that's what I was thinking.  Just let me know when you get your stuff in and we'll work on it then.

13

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: March 04, 2017, 07:47:30 PM »

>Assuming AM sees both spinner and trackball as mice, then in case I might like the option to try switching back and forth between the spinner and trackball on the fly (both active at the same time even better) for this purpose, could that be achieved by having the spinner set to the y-axis, and if so, what are the caveats of having it on y instead of x, with respect to game play in mame? (e.g. Would Arkanoid still play normally, etc.)

If you have both a trackball AND a spinner you either need two iPacs (say an iPac and a mini-pac) or you have to assign your spinner to the Z axis.   I don't think AM supports the Z axis for mouse input. 

MAME's inputs are so configurable that there's really not a big caveat either way for actual gameplay.

If you connect multiple mice, Windows will let you use them all simultaneously as one "mouse".   This is the case on my cab too, it has 3 trackballs.   I can scroll the wheel from any of the 3 trackballs just fine.    AM cannot currently differentiate them though, so I can't automatically rotate the display to where you're sitting (you have to touch the other controls for that).   MAME, on the other hand, does know the difference, so two player games can work correctly.

> And lastly, would any of this negate the ability to simultaneously retain having a joystick up/down move one at a time?

Nope not at all.

>  and I am okay with PgUp/PgDn, but would that require the i-pac to offer those keys?

No conflict or special requirements there.   The real PgDn key can be used, or not, it's fine either way.   The hack just "virtually" presses PgDn/PgUp when you spin the ball very fast.    I have my U-Hid programmed to hit PgUp/PgDn when I hold the Exit Game button ("Shift key") and press up and down on the joystick.   But that has no impact for this spinner hack.     Now that the ball is working so well I almost never touch the joystick now. 

> I am not yet familiar with any of its mapping capabilities.

It's really easy to change things around in the mapping software.   I wouldn't stress out about it too much.

14

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: March 03, 2017, 11:42:26 PM »

Yep, I can do that for you, but you mentioned that you're using a spinner.   

So I need two bits of info: Does your spinner use the X or Y mouse axis?   And, are you ok with assigning PgUp and PgDn keys to the wheel movements?   If you need different keys I could modify to match whatever you're using.

I synced the original version for a bit and I have to say this "hack" really does do wonders for being able to scroll through the wheel intuitively.   It felt so unresponsive without it. 

15

General / Re: AM support mouse or touch monitor input?

« on: March 02, 2017, 08:17:06 AM »

The bolded lines are all additions (no lines are modified in this case).  This is to the attract mode source code.   You'd have to download it, make the changes, and build it, which gives you a new attract.exe.   Towards the very bottom is the Windows (native) instructions.   Note that step 5 actually downloads the code.  Once it does that and you have a successful build you can make the changes to the files.

http://attractmode.org/docs/Compile.html

If you've used the MAME compiler before:

http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64

It leaves a buildtools folder.  That buildtools is the same as MSYS2.   So you can just run "buildtools" and then follow steps 2-5.

It looks scary especially if you're not a linux guy, but it went pretty smoothly for me.